It may seem that the crypto industry is totally bro-y, but it’s not that simple. On average, more men are involved in the financial sector, but that’s just a question of time.
Based on a Pew Research Center survey, about 19% of women ages 18 to 29 say they somehow interacted with cryptocurrency. Approximately 43% of men in the same age range say they traded, invested in, traded, or used crypto. As for working in the blockchain field, the 2019 survey showed relatively low numbers — between 4% and 6% are into blockchain among women.
And still, even in your close circle could be a witty woman who’s mining, investing, trading crypto, or developing a blockchain project.
What Made Women Turn their Heads to Crypto?
Here are some reasons that converted them to become crypto enthusiasts:
- Ideological
These women quickly embraced the crypto concept and understood that’s the future, and they definitely want to become its part. They felt like being free from government and other state institutes, breaking the borders. The opportunity to invest in projects that seem exciting and promising is another trigger to be into crypto. - Financial
Of course, women are thinking of becoming independent and wealthy as much as men do. The crypto industry looks bright from this point of view. The desire to increase their overall income drives them to learn more about crypto. - Life Circumstances
Some women work in the crypto sphere, which has become an essential element of their daily lives. They got acquainted with crypto, studied the subject closer, and started investing, trading or mining. - Professional
Some become true fans of smart contracts, data security, and decentralization idea and fall in love with the technical part of the question. - Personal
Sometimes our personal traits dictate what and how to do. So, early adopters females like to explore new fields, learn something different from what they already know, and lust for doing something unusual.
What Makes Women Turn Their Backs on Crypto
- The crypto industry, in general, is rather difficult to comprehend
The communication inside (e.g., jargon words, complicated financial concepts, numbers, charts, analytical stuff) is puzzling and makes the crypto field less inclusive for newbies, especially women. - Men usually make crypto community events for men
That’s because most of the audience is men, so the speakers and bloggers are mainly men, and it’s difficult to fit in with them. - Lack of time
That’s quite obvious that such a difficult thing as getting acquainted with crypto takes some time before it starts bringing some income. Women are often super busy with things like housework, bringing up kids, etc. - High risks
Cryptocurrency and finance sectors are full of risky decisions and are traditionally associated with men rather than women.
Top 5 Women in Crypto
Once we more or less understand why women are coming into crypto, let’s have a look at the most influential and inspiring ones. And who knows, maybe their examples will be your role models?
1. Cathie Wood
Cathie Wood is a stock-picker and founder of ARK Invest, which invests in innovations like self-driving cars and genomics.
Wood created ARK in 2014, hoping to package active stock portfolios in an ETF format.
Her flagship $23 billion Ark Innovation Fund has returned an average of nearly 45% annually over the past five years.
Wood studied economics at USC under Art Laffer, the inventor of the Laffer Curve, which theorizes the tie between tax rates and tax revenue.
Wood is one of the biggest boosters of Elon Musk's Tesla. She predicts the electric car company will be valued at over $3 trillion someday.
- Watch her interview for Bloomberg Markets and Finance here.
She’s the Republican U.S. Senator encouraging the purchase of bitcoin and supported legislation in the U.S. Congress to regulate cryptocurrencies. On August 16th, Lummis bought bitcoin worth $100,000. She previously stated that she purchased her first bitcoin in 2013 for $330 per unit.
On the other hand, Lummis plans to introduce a broad crypto bill in 2022. This law will construct a new crypto regulatory agency and digital asset tax legislation. Stablecoins would also be regulated, crypto tax rules would be established, and consumer safeguards would be established under the plan.
- Watch senator Lummis talking about why stablecoins should be backed by hard assets here.
Hester Maria Peirce is an American lawyer and a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
So, Peirce’s opinions about crypto regulations are influential for the SEC’s decision. Peirce thinks that more crypto-related products, including a spot ETF, would profit investors even if this took more time to be regulated.
Pierce showed respect for the DeFi sector, saying: “Although a work in progress with all the growing pains and rough edges that implies, DeFi’s promises of democratization, open access, transparency, predictability, and systemic resilience are alluring.”
- Watch talking about crypto regulation, NFTs, and stablecoins here.
P.S. Just a fun fact to mention —Pierce is also called “crypto mom,” a nickname she got from the crypto community’s members.
Galia Benartzi cofounded a cryptocurrency company Bancor in 2017.
Bancor has processed 1,5 billion conversions across 120 Ethereum-based currencies.
After Bancor was hacked, Benartzi got the idea to create the Crypto Defenders Alliance.
Benartzi previously built two tech startups, selling Mytopia to gaming giant 888 for $48 million dollars and Particle Code to Appcelerator.
- Here’s Benartzi’s speech for the TEDx Talks.
5. Laura Shin
Laura Shin is an ex-senior editor at Forbes, and she was among the first mainstream journalists to cover crypto full-time and recently wrote a book on the rise of Ethereum, intriguingly called “The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze.” She also has the crypto podcast “Unchained,” with over 15 million downloads and views.
- Watch this inspiring talk on crypto.
Female Celebrities Supporting Crypto
Hell yeah, popular and famous women are into crypto, as well. So, don’t be surprised when you hear Madonna buying another NFT from Bored Ape Yacht Club or a legendary tennis player Serena Williams talking about how great crypto investing could be.
Among other celebrities who are actively drumming women up to befriend crypto are Gwyneth Paltrow, Mila Kunis, and Randi Zuckerberg. The first two, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mila Kunis participated in the Zoom session in January to inspire 5,000 women in the audience to enter into the male-dominated world of crypto.
As for Mila Kunis, she had recently launched a cartoon series with her husband, Ashton Kutcher, that uses NFTs. She also talked about the importance of taking risks: “We are so conditioned as women to be risk-averse.” “I want to take risks, and I want to see what happens.”
Randi Zuckerberg, the older sister of Meta’s chief executive and a Web2 early adopter, is now one of the most critical voices in Web3. However, she confessed that she was skeptical and confused initially. But now, she has more than 100 NFTs and SiriusXM podcast called ‘Crypto Cafe With Randi Zuckerberg.’ where she talks to metaverse experts and creators about how they’re helping make crypto more accessible.
Gwyneth Paltrow invested in a fintech start-up called MoonPay, a software company that provides users with buying and selling cryptocurrencies using various payment methods such as credit cards, bank transfers, or mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Afterword
That’s challenging for women to prove that they can join a man’s, man’s, man’s world of crypto and make changes, but waking makes the road. More women are coming into crypto and showing how to succeed and how to start paving your road with bitcoin, ethereum, NFTs, and other tokens. You’re free to follow popular women bloggers on YouTube and listen to podcasts, talks, and interviews on the Net that are hosted by women and for women. Look at the names above. That’s just a drop in the bucket, there are even more females in crypto, and together they are creating and shaping a more welcoming, comprehensive, and less confusing image of the crypto industry.
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